It turns out that of the biggest printed promoters of the Wing Commander movie in 1999, Cinescape, actually has a history with the series that dates back to its very first issue in October 1994. The cover story at the time was the upcoming Star Trek Generations film featuring Malcolm McDowell, but just a few weeks later, Origin was set to make gaming history with the release of Wing Commander 3. Cinescape debuted its Gamescape section with a full preview of what was to be the best selling title in the Wing Commander franchise. The extensive use of live actor FMV was big news, and the game's incredible graphics also got a nod. WC3's green screen technology and cool Kilrathi animatronic costumes were explored in detail. Special features on Mark Hamill and other space sims of interest to WC fans also rounded out the package. With the modern internet still in its infancy in 1994, a preview such as this was about the only way for Wing Commander fans to learn about the exciting things to come.
The filming of all the possible variations makes the pace of filming much slower than a regular movie. Depending on the choice the player makes, Blair's response is quite different. The dialogue is mapped out and acted in rapid succession.
The filming is extensive. At this middle stage of shooting, the already filmed clips were being contained on a nine Gigabyte drive that was full (that's the equivalent of the Random House Unabridged Dictionary multiplied by 10). A second had arrived and was in the process of being filled with additional footage, much of which would end up on the silicion equivalent of the cutting room floor.
Star Wars Galaxies director, and one time Privateer Online lead designer, Raph Koster, has left the Sony Online Entertainment studio in Austin. This comes in the midst of quite a bit of change in the Austin software development landscape, particularly pertaining to massively multiplayer games. No specific future plans have been mentioned, but former Origin coworker and POL producer Rich Vogel took control of Bioware's new mmo-dedicated Austin branch two weeks ago. On top of all this, earlier in the month, a band of former Wing Commander and Privateer developers aligned themselves with Origin founder Richard Garriott to christen Spacetime Studios in conjunction with NCSoft Austin (which only publishes massively multiplayer games). You can read more about today's news at GameSpot here.
Based in Austin, Texas, Koster is widely considered an expert when it comes to the design of massively multiplayer online games. He often participates in event panels and maintains an active blog that focuses on the nuances of the genre...
Prior to joining SOE's Austin studio, Koster was part of the Ultima Online team at Origin Systems. In addition to Galaxies, Koster was instrumental in the development of EverQuest II at SOE.
Mr. Koster also has a personal website at raphkoster.com.
Yes, it is true I am leaving SOE.
Why? Well, I’ve been here for gosh, almost six years maybe? It’s been a good ride, and I think we’ve gotten to do some really fun and interesting work. But I am getting interested in doing some stuff that is a bit off the beaten path — really, anyone who has been reading the blog can see that! — and while SOE feels it’s really cool stuff, it’s just not where they are at right now. My contract was up, and it was the right time to poke my head up and look around, that sort of thing. It’s all quite friendly, and actually, I hope that I’ll work with SOE again in the future, because there’s a lot of wonderful talent here and a lot of cool technology, and a lot of friends.
So, sometime soon here I’ll be off on my own. Nope, no announcements about plans or anything. I don’t have a new studio in my back pocket, I don’t have a job lined up, any of that. And… we’ll see what comes. I’m thinking sleeping in next week sounds good.
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